Individual Details
(18 Jul 1849 - 1923)
Billie was a most interesting person, a true "mountain man", in both a p p earance and profession. A prospector and bear hunting guide in Jacks o n H ole, WY. Dorothy Hager, a g'granddaughter, has a picture of him. I n t h e 1880 census of Plumcreek Twp, Armstrong Co, he was shown as marri ed t o M ary Bierer, and was living next door to his father, Lucas. No c hil dr en were shown. His brother, George, was living on the other side o f L u cas, three doors away. Before his daughter, Charlotte, was born i n S e p 1880, he left home in 1880 to seek his fortune with some of his c ou s ins to go gold hunting out west. He formed a partnership with Albe r t N elson with whom he mined for gold from the South Pass into parts of M o n tana, panning for gold in the streams. (Note that in August 1888, h i s f ather Lucas executed his will in which he named his seven living ch i l dren, including William, with no mention of William's wife's name and n o p r ovision for her, and made no mention to the effect that William had a b a ndoned his family and moved to the west.) He settled in 1885 on t h e w est side of the Gros Venture River, near the north end of red cliff s o f S heep Mountain, eleven miles east of the present-day Jackson Hole A i rp ort, in western Wyoming at the base of the Tetons. He and Albert bu i l t a little cabin and worked the land. They homesteaded on the East F o r k of the Green River in 1888, but decided that homestead farming was n o t f or them, and so he and Albert took their herd of 17 horses and went b a c k to the ranch to prospect for gold, and for hunting, trapping, and g u i ding. The winter of 1889 was one of the most severe in Wyoming hi s t ory, and Billie and Albert shared their supplies with their neighbors a n d t hen snowshoed 70 miles to Rock Springs and returned with backpacks a n d a s led laden with supplies for everyone. He would rent out his h o rse s to silent movie companies making western movies, including those s t a rring Mary Miles Minter, a popular star in the very early 1900s. I n t h e 1910 Census, he was shown as single in Uinta Co, Wyoming. Fro m " T rapper to Tourist in Jackson Hole", Elizabeth Wied Hayden, 1981, Gr an d T eton Natural History Assn.: He sold his ranch to Guil Huff in 192 0 , a nd soon thereafter returned to the east to live with his daughter C h a rlotte Catharine Irwin. Five years later the disastrous Gros Ventre l a n dslide occurred, and the north end of Sheep Mountain, a section of ea r t h 2000 feet wide and a mile long, fell away after being weakened by e a r thquakes and heavy rains, forming Slide Lake along the course of the G r o s Ventre River. Guil Huff barely escaped with his wife and his life; h i s h ouse and most of their possessions were buried under water and debr i s . Bierer had warned earlier about the danger of the instability of t h e a rea. He regularly put his ear to the ground over the several years b e f ore he left the area, and heard increasing noises, leading him to sel l h i s ranch. Bierer Creek, Wyoming, is named after him; it runs alo ng h i s former ranch site and along the east side of the slide area nort hwa r d into Lower Slide Lake. He returned east very late in his life , a n d died of a gunshot wound in the woods near Irwin, Westmoreland Co, P A , a t own named after the family his daughter Charlotte married into. H o we ver, he left property in Teton , Wyoming, for there was a Noti c e o f Final Settlement of Estate dated Jun 3 1931, many years after his d e a th, published by his estate administraton, Wilford W. Neilson. Hi s g r avestone in the Beulah Cemetery shows his name as William Blank Bie re r , with the dates 1850-1923. A most unusual middle name, but the Wyo m i ng references showed him as William B. Bierer. It was his mother's m a i den name. The Beulah Cemetery is on Pleasant Valley Rd, about a mile n o r th of Route 130, between Level Green and Harrison City. His wife b e c ame insane and spent a few years in the Dixmont Asylum in Allegheny C o , P A, from 1888 to about 1892, and was then released. She died somewh e r e in Westmoreland Co. Source Information: Sewell, Patricia, ed. " M i ssoula, Montana 1890 City Directory." [Database online] Orem, UT: Anc e s try, Inc., 2000. Taken from "Wright and Woodward's Missoula City Dire c t ory, 1890" originally published Missoula, MT: Wright and Woodward, 18 9 1 . A copy of this book is held by the Missoula , Library, Missou l a , MT, 59802 (call number R910.3 MT Collection). Bierer is a commo n n a me in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA. 1880 Census of Pennsylva ni a : Birth Year <1848> Birthplace PA Age 3 2 O c cupation Marital Status M Race W H e a d of Household William BIERER Father's Birthplace PA Mother's B i r thplace PA Source Information: Census Place: Plum Creek, Armstro n g , Pennsylvania Family History Library Film 1255096 NA Film Number T 9 - 1096 Page Number 119C ----------- History of the Beulah Ch u r ch Cemetery, also known as Turner's Old Graveyard: "The early set t l ers of Squirrel Hill were long in want of a public place in which to b u r y their dead. Some of them adopted the early custom of the times of h a v ing their own family graveyard, while others were compelled to seek a b u r ial place for their dead at different localities, but the one most so u g ht, and where many of the early settlers of Squirrel Hill are buried, i s t h e old graveyard known as Beulah burrying ground, which is located a bo u t two miles northeast of the town of Wilkinsburg. The long needed w a n t of Squirrel Hill Was supplied to its people by the generosity of Jo h n T urner, who, about the commencement of the nineteenth century, donat e d a s mall piece of land from his estate for burial purposes." H e s o ld his ranch to Guil Huff in 1920, and soon thereafter returned to t h e e ast to live with his daughter Charlotte Catharine Irwin. He died in 1 9 2 3 of a gunshot wound in the woods near Irwin, Westmoreland Co, PA, a t o w n named after the family his daughter Charlotte married into. However , h e l eft property in Teton , Wyoming. His gravestone in the B e ul ah Cemetery shows his name as William Blank Bierer, with the dates 1 8 5 0-1923. The Beulah Cemetery is on Pleasant Valley Rd, about a mile no r t h of Route 130, between Level Green and Harrison City Records not imp o r ted into INDI (individual) Gramps ID I8066: Tag recognised but no t s u pported Line 113068: 3 _TMPLT Skipped subordinat e l i ne Line 113069: 4 FIELD Skip pe d s ubordinate line Line 11 3 07 0: 5 NAME Page Skipped subordinate line Line 113071 : 5 V A LUE Grovout, Uinta , Wyoming, ED 138, pp. 205, Sheet 14B, L ine 5 8
Events
| Birth | 18 Jul 1849 | Elderton, Armstrong, Pennsylvania, United States | | | |
| Baptism | 20 Jun 1850 | Greensburg, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, United States |  | | |
| Marriage | 1880 | Mary E. _____ | | | |
| Census | 1880 | Plumcreek Township, Armstrong, Pennsylvania, United States | | | |
| Census | 6 May 1910 | Uinta, Wyoming, United States | | | |
| Burial | 1923 | Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, United States | | | |
| Death | 1923 | Irwin, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, United States | | | |
Families
Notes